Chicken Killer

Hey everyone, I'm new here. This is a great site, hope to get to know everyone more.
I've lost 7 chickens since the first of April. I hadn't seen what was doing it, but had seen a
coon eating cat food. And a possum was hanging around awhile back but haven't seen it lately.
Thanks to one of my dogs waking me up this morning at 5:30, I was able to take out at least one chicken killer, it was a male coon.
I've always liked coons, even had them as pets, but they aren't going to have any more free meals in my chicken coop.

Good for you
I know its aweful to kill a creature thats just doing what instincts tell them to do but
when they start killing things and treating our yards as KFC drive thru ya gotta make it stop

Personally , I throw up every time I shoot something but its my babies or them

The last one dragged a Full grown WCB Polish out of his cage and ate him on top of the cage
I felt bad
It was a nursing mother but she had to go

Welcome to DG, Dixietoad_ga! We're glad to have you here! We roll thru/past Vidalia on I-75 every time we head to Florida. Great part of Georgia! ....Love the onions too! lol :)

Glad to hear you got one of your chicken killers. Give your dog a pat on the head for doing a good job of waking you up in time. He's earned his keep today. It's always sad to kill an animal, but sometimes it's the only way to protect your flock and livestock. ...It's just how it is.

~~ Glenda

It's true. We're a fun bunch. Welcome aboard.

Hey Dixietoad!!! Another Georgian for the group..Yaaaaaay! I have relatives .... check that,........I have a LOT of relatives down in good ole Vi-day-uh!!!!! Lyons, OakPark...and everywhere inbetween!!!! LOL!!! Hmmmmm, could be you are hanging on the tree too!!!! We'll Have to talk!!!
Now about that Raccoon! Looks to me like it sure would make a great Hat!!!!! Shoot Fire....... Stuff him with a couple o' those Onions and stick him in the oven , uhmmmm, uhmmmm, Good!! Haaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Okay , enough of the weird georgian humor! Welcome to the forums, so happy to have ya! Tell us all about your Chickens and such , we really want to know! I hope that ole' Coon left you some!!!

Now, to make it a doubly useful reason to get that raccoon, all you need is a coon-skin cap......... just like Davey Crockett. Keeps your head warm while you feed your chickens in the winter. lol Just kidding, of course.

Glad you got the predator. Raccoons are kinda fun and cute at times, but they have no use, really. Now it's another story with our chickens. They can be fun and cute, and give us nice eggies too.
Gotta protect them.

Yea, coons that lands on the wrong side of the fence here..will meet their maker quick when my 2 dogs get a hold of them!!

Yes-sirrr-ree! Glad to hear it! Coons look too much like feral cats...Everyone knows how that would end!!....BOO!

Sorry (glad) no raccoons here. Kelly

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone ! Been busy and haven't had much time to get on here. A little about my flock we have bantams 3 Golden Seabright hens, 1 pair of Silver Duckwing, 1 mixed bantam hen, 1 Very handsome & sweet game rooster (Red), 7Dark Cornish biddies, 3 guineas, 4 Araucana biddies,3 White Rocks, & 1 Small Game Rooster.

Well looks like I'll be loading the shotgun again, everything has been quite until last night.
We lost a white dove to something. Bad enough they were getting my chickens,now they are after my sweet doves. It reached through two layers of chicken wire.

Well I just saw the killer it's another coon, smaller one this time. He was in front of our Cockatiel barn or he would be dead now.
More of the Coon Surely Dies later !

Eufaula who is your peeps down here in V-Town, might know some of them.
I know Jim and Rindi McNair they are from Eatonton, their up there right now.

hi dix!
blammalate those chicken killers, you go girl.

we are a group of gun toting, gum chewing and
cracking, coffee swagging chicken lovers here
and glad to welcome anyone of the same
persuasion. LOL.
sheri

Sheri, as always, you're a hoot!! LOL

Go get'm Dix!!

:) Glenda

Ok, thats it I demand you show us pics of the cockatiel barn and the doves too !!!!

I use to have an outdoor aviary yrs ago set up for my keets and tiels and loved it until the day I walked in to find a snake had gotten in....I was beside myself since I'm phobic...lol

~Julie =0)

Welcome to the forum - Dixietoad.
Your rooster looks very much like my 'Big Boy'. He's a cross between a Rhode Island Red hen and a Harco Black roo.

Halnik your Big Boy is a very handsome rooster, he looks a little heavier than my Red.
But he is just as handsome.


Been an exciting day, we added a new pen today since I picked up a pair of Golden Seabrights this afternoon bringing us up to a total of 5.
Also had to run off some stray dogs that were looking for a free meal. One had been here before and took one of our roosters and Reds tail back in March. (But not today !)

Burns my tail feathers that I keep all of my animals (and we have alot) in pens and I have to worry about coons, possums, snakes and stray dogs. My hubby said today (I thought chickens were supposed to be easy to keep) told him they are it's keeping everything else from getting them that is hard.

Time to go roost, night all.

Later Peeps

Hey All, just a quick jump in here! While flat on my back this weekend with the "diskproblem" I couldnt go out to the coops or walk out to my grief! My DH took pretty good care of everything but saturday just before dark he came running in the house saying he killed a snake trying to get my little turkeys and their roost mates the White crested black Polish Chicks!
This criiter turned out to be a Rat Snake about 5 ft long! He had crawled up onto the birdnetting that covered the "tractor" and got all tangled up! Apparently it couldnt get its scales out of the netting! So One more "Thumbs up" for Bird netting!

.410 works good on snakes, they would always be found at mom's when the creek was running high. I went through a lot of .410 shells back in those days.

That's a good man you got there Eufaula! ;)

Good Job on that chicken killer coon...
Tracey

I had the same problem one year. We had a state trapper come out and set a trap. The next morning when I went out to open up the hen house he was sitting on his haunches with his arms folded across his chest. When the trapper came I commented that my hens were once again safe. He informed that the 'culprit' had a mate and she would come looking for dinner now. I thought he was wasting his time resetting the trap until I came out the next morning and she was in it.

I had no idea they paired, nor did I realize they got that big. On his haunches the male stood 3.5' tall!


Glad your hens are safe,

Donna

Hi I'm new here too. I have lost 5 chickens and my only two ducks this past week to coons.
We trapped one night before last but still lost a rooster. I killed the one we trapped, but nothing was in the trap this morning.

We have a coop that can be shut up but there were far too many "holes" where varmints could get in. So a friend and I plugged up all the holes with chicken wire and wire.. But the roof of the pen, has 4 or 5 inch fencing on it, so we are going to cover that with chicken wire.. If it will stop raining. We got it partially done the other night, and caught the coon that night.

I already hated coons for eating all my koi and gold fish a couple of years ago.. now ... my disgust is even greater.

The one we got was a small male so I know his mom is out there somewhere. Or his mate.. They were grabbing two a night..
The first night it was the ducks.. the duck was sitting on a nest in the field and the drake to killed too, they never went in the coop anyway.
The second night I locked up the pen but the coons got in and killed two hens. So we locked up the coop the next night and they opened the door. and got two more... ( my little silkie was a victim this time). They never bothered the roosters. I had three. We usually kept the two bachelors away from the rest of the flock.
Now I have 2 roosters and only 4 hens left. Im so disgusted. I also think they got hold of the wild chicken we had ...had penned up but she would occasionally fly out of the field and then come back a day or two later.. Haven't seen her in a while... so they may have gotten her.

Anyway. it feels good to talk to people who have suffered as I have with loosing my feathered friends.

Dang
this is all so sad

Well I'm new here too, and I just love it, signed up 3 days ago and I can't stay away, don't have any chickens but the coons got my koi two years in a row, so we put up three rows of wire about 2" apart all around the pond and hooked it up to our livestock hot wire. Its not very pretty but if you grab the hot wire and touch the water it will zap the wazoo out of you. So for so good haven't lost any koi yet this year.
Jane

Georgart53, Maybe you should consider getting a Great Pyrenees Dog. Make sure it is one that has been raised with livestock. They are very gentle giants & protective of people and small animals.

I lost a young cat to coyotes & her sister was badly injured but since I adopted my Andre the Giant from a local shelter; no more coyotes. When he first arrived I saw him chasing the coyotes down the fenceline. They ran like they were scalded in boiling oil. I wouldn't have believed my big guy could move so fast & look so fierce if I had not seen it with my own eyes. He now makes routine "patrols" along the fenceline every day marking his territory. The other day my small dog, Coco followed me out to the large pasture where we were clearing brush. Our 2 horses started to move towards him. They have no interest in harming Coco but Andre took no chances. He stepped between Coco and the horses and barked and growled. The horses just looked at him like he had gone mad but they made no move forward. As Coco (oblivious to any danger) slowly made his way back towards the house, Andre walked backwards behind him constantly facing the 2 horses & barking until Coco was back in the yard. He stayed right next to him until I returned from the pasture. He's quite a guy!

Here's a pic of Andre getting his just reward!
Margie

I'm so glad to hear about a good great pyr
I had nothing but problems with the one I adopted

I was in the garden
heard the chickens swawking
looked over at the barn
there was Polar,sleeping and the fox 10 feet away from him ,trying to grab a chicken,and the chicken screaming its head off
I ran over ,threw a bucket at the fox...polar lifted his head,looked around and layed back down
this is the same dog that would bark for hours at a squrriel 2 miles away
Turns out he was raised in a city in Jersey
No interest in being a gardian
he found a new home

He's a beauty, Margie!

I got a pair of them after we started raising sheep, Sissy & Sam. Sissy got hit by a car passing a tractor as she was crossing the road; Sam we had for years.The first winter after we got them Ernest couldn't figure out why we didn't have any deer on the place. When a neighbor a mile down the road commented on our new horse (he thought it was a miniature) coming by for a visit Ernest realized why we had no deer.

To stay cool Sam would step into the horse trough, walk across and step out the other side. The first time I saw him do it I couldn't stop laughing. He looked like a polar bear swimming.

Personally, I can hardly wait to get back out into the country so I can own another one.

Donna

Crestedchik,

That is TOO funny! Goes to show you, breeding only goes so far in creating a true livestock guardian dog.


I really got just plain lucky with Andre. They told me at the shelter they were planning to put him down. Due to his extreme timidity of humans (as a result of a previous owner's abuse) he will not let anyone touch him...not even me. They had to catch him with a long pole in the large pen he was in at the shelter. I brought him home on a lead & he stayed in the house overnight. I petted him & brushed him & he had the strangest look like "What the heck are you doing?" He did not respond at all. No growling but no tail wagging either. The next morning he somehow managed to squeeze his huge body through a little doggie door and that was that for having him inside. We are slowly getting closer and closer but I allow him his space & I guess he is grateful so he sticks around. When I come home every day around 5pm, he is laying under the same tree by the drive. He jumps up & wags his tail and bounces on his front feet with apparent joy. Still "You can't touch this!" seems to be his motto. I've had him since November of 2006 and I don't think he will ever get much closer than he does now. My vet is coming soon to dart him just so we can give him his vacinations and neuter him. We tried sedative pills in his food and though they made him sleepy he remained alert enough to run away when I got within 2 feet of him. My vet was afraid to give him a stronger dose of the pills. How sad we have to go to that extreme.

Donna I can just see a big pyr doing what you described!
The breed DOES have it's draw backs. Sometimes they can be TOO protective & get aggressive with strangers. Not Andre. He runs & hides in the woods when ever a strange car pulls in the drive. That's how I know someone is on the property. LOL.

Donna I know you can relate to this!
The worst thing is they tend to wander. They don't see fences as a barrier. Andre periodically makes rounds to my neighbors goats to the east and my other neighbor's cows to the south. No compaints from the neighbors but I worry about him when he leaves the property. Guess you can tell I am TOTALLY smitten by my Giant!

Hope you get a new big dog soon Donna!

Oh, Margie, I am so sorry to hear that he's been abused. Good for him that he has you to love him as you do!!

When someone would drive up at our place Sam would saunter over, stand up on his hind legs, put his front paws on the roof and look in the window. And God forbid the folks roll down their windows; Sam would stick his muzzle in to get a closer look, drool and all.

But he never hurt anyone or anything that we knew of.


Thanks for the reminding me of such wonderful memories, y'all!

Ihave a neighbor with a pair of these wonderful guardians! They are not aggressive as long as their people are around and know you have been invited on the property! But... I would not drive into their yard with out notice! These beautiful animals would greet me at the half way point going up the 2 mile drive, follow me to the yard and when parked go to my window and look in! They had no need to stand on hind legs either! I would say ," Hi Junior and Missy, Wheres Mama?" they would start barking and Call Mama and she would come out the door and everything would be fine. We could walk in the gardens and fields with the dogs unmolested! But let an univited animal or stranger drive in unexpectedly! Whooeeeee! Now that is a funny sight!
My friend never even so much as lost a baby Chick or a carrot out of her garden!

Sounds like wonderful companions who than more than earned their way (for pets I consider this rare & an important factor).

Some pets provide nothing more than the companionship & this is fine if it all that is needed from them, others protection, herding etc. and still others a multitude of tasks.

My departed sister (she was deaf) had a dog who now resides with my mother. The dog (a mutt) was her companion and an extra set of ears for her.

This dog is extremely protective of my mother to the point of attacking even officers of the law if they made a move deemed threatening.

If I am careful I can actually pet that animal without fear of bodily harm, I am glad she is there for my mother.

Thanks everyone for the concern and advice. They are locked up tight now.. During the day I let them out into the big field/garden. Trying to attach a little diagram I made of my set up. My Uncle(dec.) had originally closed in the little pen to put some wild chickens we had in the neighboor hood, but they just flew over the fence in the big garden. But he had used just what ever fencing he had around. We come from a long line of scroungers. So when I got my first rooster and 6 hens we did what we could but life was hectic at the time and we never got around to fixing it the way we should. Now it's not pretty, but it works. The "flock" seems to like it so...

I would really like to have a small burro. Do they watch the flock as well as a full sized donkey?
Since my field is not a large field I think the burro wold fit in better.
Margie.. wow, I would hate to have a doggie that I couldn't cuddle. But Crested.. that is funny.. not losing the chicken of course but it's like one of those old Loony toons. Remember the sheep dog that clocked in on the time clock ?

dyson
I don't want to get personal....but why would officers of the law make a threatening move towards your Mother?

Please tell me that was just an example........

and yes it was funny how Polar would just sleep thru something like that
he was a big dork

I just love big dogs....


When I had newfoundlands a State trooper car came down the driveway to ask if anything was missing from our garage.There had been a rash of thefts on our road
My newfies,one on each side put their paws on the hood and were looking in at the troopers.....who had slid down in their seats........ as low as they could go.......
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
they had never done anything like that before.........
freaked the troopers right out
first thing they asked is if they'd been feed lately

now I just have 2 Great Danes
which do nothing to save the chickens
but I still love them


by the way
the white peacock I had posted the picture of before has disappeared......
has never left the yard in 5 years........
we don't know if he was pea-napped or got scared of the fireworks going off in the area
I did have one run away with a flock of turkeys one time
never did catch him
maybe a fox got him
we are sending out a search party tomorrow morning

Just to clarify, the troopers (or anyone else) are not threatening, but if you, the troopers, or anyone else including me gets to close, the dog (Bandit), takes it very personally.

She is a medium sized dog and a mutt that my sister adopted while she was working in a veterinarian's office. My sister has since passed away, but Bandit remains with my mother.